Sigma Alpha Epsilon has come back to campus after 10 years and is looking to recruit new members to the fraternity.
SAE attempted to host a town hall meeting to provide interested students with information about the fraternity on Friday, Jan. 19 at 6 p.m. in Quigley Hall, However, no students attended the event.
Steve Orkis, ’08, was a part of SAE during his years at the college and wanted to address student concerns about the chapter and garner student interest during rush week.
“I am here as an alumni to kick things off and answer any questions about our history, of the chapter itself if there are any questions or any rumors about why we were kicked off, and address some of those issues,” Orkis said.
In 2013, the SAE fraternity removed themselves from the college after several drug charges against two of their members — and had originally planned to come back three years after removal. The purpose of removing themselves from campus and having a plan to return was to allow old members at the time to graduate and then for the fraternity to return with new members, Orkis said.
There are a few ways the fraternity will return safely, according to Cullen Kerigan, SAE’s assistant director of growth.
“We have a few things naturally implemented into all our organizations,” Kerigan said. “We have the Phoenix Member Education that all our brothers are able to go online and be a part of. It has classes and topics covered from how to spot and prevent hazing, how to prevent drug and alcohol abuse and how to safely run an event.”
Assistant Dean for Student Leadership and Engagement Eric Stolar also explained some of Allegheny’s safety policies. Specifically with Fraternity and Sorority Life, Stolar periodically talks to chapter leaders and makes himself available to them.
“There is a whole set of risk management policies and procedures that are set in place with expectations on how to conduct yourselves, whether it’s in a social setting or in an organizational setting,” Stolar said.
Because there are no existing members of SAE on campus, new members will be considered “founding fathers” of the college chapter, according to Kerigan.
“It is a great thing for your resume, and professional experience,” Kerigan said. “I don’t want to say that we are starting new because we have a lot of alumni involved, but all the guys who join get direct experience of creating a chapter that they’d like to be a part of.”
Some of the aspects of the fraternity that new members will be able to create are the by-laws, the membership and the day-to-day operations, Kerigan said. Additionally, new members, including second-semester first-years, will have the opportunity to have immediate leadership within the fraternity.
The new members will be guided by an emerging chapter consultant who will guide the new members through operating a fraternity.
“One of the things we talked about on the Alumni Advisory Board is having a recruitment coaching type of event to help not only SAE increase membership but also the larger Greek community in Allegheny,” Orkis said.
Some of the benefits that SAE will be talking about in the upcoming rush week include scholarships to help cover the cost of joining the fraternity for the first year and alumni one-on-one mentorships.
“We’ve got the alumni program here at Allegheny, plus we have the National Alumni Program,” Kerigan said. “We’ve also got a backpack-to-briefcase program so if you are a SAE member you will have automatic access to that program where you can go in and look at all these different jobs posted by brothers.”
The fraternity, which previously occupied 585 North Main Street, dose not currently have a house and does not have immediate plans to establish one.
“Our main focus right now from an alumni standpoint is to establish a chapter,” Orkis said. “If we ever had the opportunity to with Allegheny down the road then we could explore that option but there aren’t any concrete plans to do so right now.”
